The 165-member Hermitage Education Association and the Hermitage School Board will begin nonbinding final arbitration to settle the teachers contract on May 9.

Subsequent dates for negotiations are June 5 and 6, Superintendent Karen Ionta said this morning.

She said the mediator was to come to Hermitage this afternoon to decide on the form of arbitration. The HEA has asked for issue-by-issue arbitration and the board has asked for single-package arbitration.

The two sides have been negotiating since January 2001, and the teachers have been working without a contract since July.

Negotiations came to an impasse in March over pay raises. The sticking point is a district offer of $1,600 a year as opposed to an HEA request for $2,700 a year.

The teachers struck for seven days in March, which changed the graduation date from June 5 to June 14 to fulfill the state-mandated 180 days in a school year.

If either side votes down the arbiter's decision, the teachers could strike again, which could push the last day of school to June 30, the state-mandated close of the 2001-02 school year.